Author: Trafficblast

Cold Symmetry’s Mortal Shell is an all new action-RPG that seems a lot like From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The latest footage released from publishers Playstack certainly has the Dark Souls aesthetic down pat.

In this new footage we can see a parry move that is very similar to the Mikiri Counter or the execute maneuver from Sekiro. In Sekiro, enemies had a posture system, much like armor, that would run out during a fight, prompting the player to perform an execute move with a similar red dot and do mass damage like in the footage above.

Developers trying to imitate the Dark Souls style is nothing new, with titles like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Code Vein starting to fall under the new ‘souls-like’ genre. Punishing combat and difficult enemies are the staple of a ‘souls-like” game, with many following the examples laid down by From Software.

It’s worth noting that the developers have worked on the upcoming game Ghost of Tsushima, a game that also has a ‘souls-like’ feel and combat, which is why Mortal Shell might have a similar style of combat to it. It is entirely possible that Mortal Shell is actually more like Ghost of Tsushima, but without either of the games out yet we can’t possibly know.

Mortal Shell will be running a beta test sometime before the release. Head over to the official website and follow the prompts to sign up. The game will be available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One in Q3 2020.

Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories has finally released in the west. The game has had a strange, fascinating journey to store shelves, and its release is significant because of how long fans of the series have been waiting for it.

Disaster Report 4 is set in the aftermath of a natural disaster in Japan. It was originally scheduled for a March 10, 2011 PS3 release, but was delayed until later that year. Then, on March 10, the Tohoku Earthquake hit Japan, causing an enormous tsunami that caused over 15,000 deaths and displaced over 200,000 people. In the wake of this tragedy, the game was cancelled.

In 2014, Granzella acquired the rights to the Disaster Report series and began work, yet again, on a fourth game in the series, this time for the PS4. The new game was created from the ground up, and eventually released in Japan in 2018. It wasn’t until January 2020 that a release date for the west was nailed down.

It’s only the third game in the series to get an English language release, after the first Disaster Report (2003) and its sequel Raw Danger! (2007), both for the PS2. The third game in the series released in 2009 for the PSP, in Japan only. This makes it the first game in the series to release in English in 13 years. There are scenarios in the final game that were designed in collaboration with the Kobe City Fire Bureau.

Funnily enough, the game has released in the west amid yet another calamity (the COVID-19 pandemic), albeit not a natural disaster. It’s not the only strangely timely game release; the Resident Evil 3 remake opens with a news report on a brutal pandemic (in this case, a zombie uprising).

Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories is available on PS4, Switch, and PC now.

Project xCloud is Microsoft’s game-streaming service. Currently still in beta, the program has been available to select users since October last year. With big Microsoft titles like Gears 5, Halo 5: Guardians, Killer Instinct, and Sea of Thieves all on the service, EA becomes the newest company to add games to the service.

Dragon Age: Inquisition, Unravel Two, and The Sims 4 are all big titles for Microsoft to scoop up. Whether you’re a fan of Bioware’s RPG series, ready to traverse puzzles with the power of yarn and friendship, or just someone who enjoys the satisfaction of living through and managing the lives of their Sims, these three are some of the best titles to come out of EA in the past few years.

There is no word on when the streaming service will be ready for testing on other platforms. The Inside Xbox April 2020 announcements only touched on Project xCloud, including the addition of the three EA titles, with the streaming service preview set to open up in 11 more countries across Western Europe on top of the original four countries it began in.

If you are lucky enough to live in a country participating in the beta preview, you can still sign up to be a part of the program. To participate you’ll need a compatible Android device, a Microsoft account, an Xbox One controller with Bluetooth, and an internet connection with 10Mbps downloads.

Project xCloud is also available on iOS, but with fewer games and features currently available.

The patch notes for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare‘s much-anticipated Season 3 update have arrived, detailing all of the changes, tweaks, and new features coming to the military shooter. The update itself hasn’t arrived just yet, but it should be released in a matter of hours, if not sooner. [Update: the patch is out now; go, go go!]

One of the biggest changes in the update is for the Warzone multiplayer mode. The cost of one of the game’s most useful features, the Loadout Drop, has increased to $10,000. The cost of the Loadout Drop from the Buy Station started at $6,000 before moving up to $8,500, and now it’s even higher. Many players have remarked that the Loadout Drop is negatively affecting game balance, and the higher price point should help smooth things out, at least to a degree.

The Loadout Drop is one of Warzone’s distinctive features. It allows players to call in an airdrop that comes with a pre-made loadout of any weapons and items that players have already unlocked. As such, it can be incredibly useful on the battlefield.

Another change for Warzone is that the game will now display the distance between yourself and your teammates, which should help squads stay together. Additionally, the patch fixes a bug that could allow a player to become invincible if they are downed at the moment they are switching seats in the Tac Rover vehicle.

Some Modern Warfare and Warzone weapons also see changes in the update. Akimbo weapons now begin with two extra magazines of ammo instead of one. The VLK Rogue Shotgun, meanwhile, has a tighter spread when firing from the hip, and all shotgun slugs have had their aim-down-sights spread decreased.

You can see the full Season 3 patch notes below, as posted by Infinity Ward.

In addition to these under-the-hood changes, the Season 3 update for Modern Warfare and Warzone introduces new content in form of new multiplayer maps and a Quads mode for Warzone. A new Operator, Alex from the Modern Warfare campaign, is also headed to Modern Warfare. There is a new Season 3 Battle Pass, too, that comes with various cosmetics and even Riley, the dog from Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Modern Warfare Season 3 Patch Notes:

GENERAL FIXES:

• Lowered the max amount of XP and score given for Decoy Grenade assists
• Backend fixes to help Memory Error 13-71 issues. If you’re still experiencing this error, please reach out to Activision Customer Support
• Fixed a bug where more than one dog would be present in the squad walk in the main multiplayer menu
• As an owner of a regiment, players could sometimes see an error when selecting another player in their regiment. This has been fixed
• Fixed an issue where players were unable to skip cutscenes in the campaign while using keyboard and mouse controls
• Fixed a bug where players were sometimes unable to see Clan Tags for other players in the Social Menu after restarting app, or going through a power cycle
• Fixed an issue where some players could encounter graphical corruptions, causing their screen to have a black ‘shadow’ that followed them. This has been fixed
• Fix for an area on St. Petrograd that lacked collision and allowed the Recon Drone to fly out of bounds
• Fixed a bug that made clan tags appear twice
• Fixed a bug that could prevent players from speaking to their team in a custom match if they switched teams after the match has started

AUDIO:

• Lowered the volume of the plane audio during infil
• Lowered the audio once you enter the Gulag
• Reduced the volume of occluded far and distant weapons
• Some footstep sounds while ADS and crouched were cut short on the distance you could hear them, depending on the surface type

WEAPONS:

• Fixed an issue where “The Line Breaker” variant of the EBR could out perform the base version of the same weapon
• Players with the “Cherry Blossom” variant of the Akimbo handguns could have broken animations while ADS on ladders. This has been fixed
• Firing a smoke grenade with the under barrel 40mm smokescreen launcher did not emit any smoke from the grenade. This has been fixed
• Attaching the Sniper Scope to the MK2 Carbine while in the Gunsmith would show a white, opaque lens. This has been fixed.
• Tightened the pellet spread on the Slug 6-R Mags for the Model 680
• Akimbo weapons now start with 2 extra magazines of ammunition instead of 1
• Tightened up the hip spread on the VLK Rogue Shotgun
• Decreased ADS spread for shotgun slugs
• Added descriptions to slugs noting that longer barrels and chokes improve ADS accuracy
• Updating names of weapons to match weapon logos
  • 725: “FTAC Equilibrium” renamed to “Cronen Equilibrium”
  • SA87: “FSS SA87 Heavy Stock Pro” renamed to “XRK SA87 Heavy Stock Pro”
  • RAM-7: “XRK Ranger” renamed to “FSS Ranger
  • Grau 5.56: “FSS 26.4″ Archangel” renamed to “Tempus 26.4″ Archangel”

SPECIAL OPERATIONS:

• Added on screen text to call out when a player’s vehicle is damaged
• Operation Headhunter: Fix for an error that could occur after launching the drone
• Operation Headhunter: Fixed a bug where the minimap could overlap the Objectives on screen
• Fall damage is now the same in Co-Op as it is in Warzone

WARZONE:

• We now tell you how far away you are from your teammates while in a match
• Fix for the gas mask animation interrupting and blocking players from deploying their parachute
• Various exploit fixes
• Fix for a bug where players were unable to revive teammates after getting interrupted during the initial revive animation
• Fixed a bug where players could be killed by vehicles without being near the player
• Fixed an issue that could display the incorrect rank on screen after the player’s game application had been suspended and reopened
• Fixed an issue where deploying a Recon Drone would use the VO lines for a Personal Radar. That VO was also heard by all players on the map. This has been fixed
• Fix for a bug where players could become invincible if they become downed while switching seats in a Tac Rover
• While spectating a player in the Gulag, the option to redeploy your teammate would appear on screen, even though they cannot be redeployed. This has been fixed
• If a player spectates the winning team of a BR match, the After-Action Report will display the winning team’s score in the scoreboard tab. This has been fixed.
• Fixed a bug where placing a Shield Turret on a teammate could kill them

PLUNDER:

• Fixed a bug where players couldn’t swap out the M13 for any other weapon in the Plunder tutorial

BATTLE ROYALE:

• Fix for players unable to self-revive in Solos
• Increased price of Loadout Drop within the Buy Station to $10,000
• Removed Blood Splatter and Screen Shake when being punched in the Gulag waiting area
• Removed Loss Column from BR Leaderboard and replaced with Top 10s
• Fixed issue with final circles occurring out of bounds or in undesirable areas
• Fixed issue with Armor plates and Killstreaks being unusable under certain conditions

PC:

• Several fixes to prevent crashes and improve stability

Journey to the Savage Planet is getting a little bigger soon with the new Hot Garbage DLC. The $8 expansion will see players tasked with exploring a new area, and they’ll be able to unlock new upgrades and fight fierce new foes.

The expansion is coming to the Xbox One and PC versions of the game on April 15, while a PS4 release date has not been announced yet. This is just six days after the game comes to Xbox Game Pass, so new players will be able to expand their game.

The trailer for Hot Garbage shows off the expansion’s new tools, including a jetpack, toxic deshocker, and underwater boots. The jetpack and boots, in particular, will impact how you explore the world, and it looks like this new area will have portals that the player can jump through.

It also seems that Kindred Aerospace, the company behind your expedition, will send a new robot enemy after you in the expansion.

Journey to the Savage planet scored a 7/10 in GameSpot’s review back in January. “Journey to the Savage Planet borrows plenty of familiar elements from other games,” reviewer Richard Wakeling wrote, “yet it does so in a carefree way that sets it apart from other sci-fi exploration games, settling on a relaxing playstyle that’s informed by its single, vivid planet and tightly focused design.”

Riot’s new tactical shooter Valorant is still in beta, but that hasn’t stopped players from flooding to Twitch in order to catch a glimpse of the team behind League of Legends’ next game. Over 1.7 million viewers tuned were watching the game on Twitch at its peak, according to PC Gamer, watching those lucky enough to have made it into the closed beta.

Big name Twitch streamers and professional esport players such as xQc, Pokimane, DrDisprespect, Surefour, and more have been streaming the beta around the clock since it began early last week. They have even been provided with beta keys to give away live on stream. While Riot allowed streamers to roll out some content and footage last week, it’s the real-time footage that players want to see.

Valorant peaked with about as many viewers as Fortnite did during the black hole event during the black hole event back in Fortnite: Chapter 2. The black hole event, which ended in Fortnite being rebranded as Fortnite: Chapter 2 after its map was destroyed, was a major milestone for the game, while these viewer numbers are reflective of the hype Valorant has built up in the lead up to release.

It still remains to be seen where Valorant ends up compared to the genre titans like Overwatch or Team Fortress 2, but with this many people just tuning in to watch the beta, Valorant may be in for a busy launch.

Valorant is set to release in summer 2020 on PC, but Riot has yet to announce a more specific release date.

Call of Duty’s goodest boy, Riley the dog from Call of Duty: Ghosts, is coming to Modern Warfare. Activision has announced that the fan-favorite Call of Duty dog will be added to Modern Warfare through the upcoming Season 3 update, but there is a catch.

You need to buy the Season 3 Battle Pass to unlock Riley. People who buy the pass will get Riley in the form of a new finishing move where Riley will probably attack and kill your enemy. This will be the second dog-themed murdering move in Modern Warfare, as the Operator Talon has a dog of his own named Indiana that also bites and kills people as part of a brutal finishing move.

For those who don’t remember, Riley become an instant internet sensation when he was announced for Ghosts during the Xbox One reveal event in May 2013. Developer Infinity Ward tossed up whether or not to kill the dog in the story mode, but thankfully they did not. Riley sustained a bullet wound, but he survived, and now he’s coming to Modern Warfare very soon.

For Ghosts, a German Shepherd named Ruger and a Belgian Malinois called Rico were used for Riley’s motion-capture performance, but presumably Infinity Ward used a different dog for Modern Warfare.

Modern Warfare’s Season 3 introduces a lot of new free content for Modern Warfare and Warzone that players can unlock by progressing through the new Battle Pass or by purchasing new content outright. There are also new multiplayer maps and a new Operator, Alex, from the Modern Warfare campaign. The free-to-play Warzone battle royale mode, meanwhile, introduces a new Quads mode.

Season 3 Update Launch Time

• April 7 at 11 PM PT / April 8 at 2 AM ET / April 8 at 7 AM UK / April 8 at 4 PM AEDT

Our Xbox crew analyzes what Head of Xbox Phil Spencer said during our interview with him on last week’s episode. We think he said a lot in his clever, indirect way… Plus: an Inside Xbox news recap, rumors about what Resident Evil 8 will be like, and at the very end you’ll hear our live as-it-happened reactions to the PS5’s DualSense controller reveal.

Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, or grab an MP3 download of this week’s episode. For more awesome content, check out the latest episode of IGN Unfiltered, featuring an interview with Valve’s Robin Walker and Chris Remo about the past, present, and future of Half-Life:

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/24/valve-on-the-future-of-half-life-plus-other-inside-stories-ign-unfiltered-49″]

It’s already an incredibly fun year of Xbox coverage, and the best is yet to come. Join us!

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Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare‘s Season 3 update is coming soon, and with it comes more Trials that you can complete to earn even more XP to help you rank up faster.

There are four new Trials in the Season 3 update, each of which pays out a whopping 10,000 XP if you can reach the 3-star ranking. Complete them all and you can earn 40,000 extra XP.

As announced on the Activision blog, the trials take place on a variety of maps, including Vacant, Hackney Yard, Piccadilly, Docks, Stack, and Euphrates Bridge, among others. As always, the challenges are varied. For example, Shooting Range requires you to locate and kill all targets as fast as you can and using as little ammo as possible. The Marksman challenge, meanwhile, asks you to take down enemies at range against the clock. You can see a full rundown of the four new Trials below.

Modern Warfare Season 3 Trials

• Gun Course – Played on Vacant in two variations (with or without Smoke), make your way through the course as fast as possible while clearing all enemy targets and avoiding civilian casualties
• Risky Parkour – Available on three stages, each with a unique course (Hackney Yard, Piccadilly, Gun Runner), move through each checkpoint and finish the course as fast as possible. Beware of the heavy toxic gas on low ground.
• Shooting Range – Available on Docks (rifles) and Stack (shotgun), locate and shoot all targets in the area, quickly, while conserving ammunition.
• Marksman Challenge – Playable on Euphrates Bridge in two variations (sniper rifle and handgun), engage waves of long-distance targets and beat the clock. Missed shots burn time.

The Season 3 update is coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and you can find out exactly when it launches here. The update adds new multiplayer maps for Modern Warfare, as well as a new Quads mode for Warzone. The new Battle Pass contains a lot of new cosmetic items to unlock, including Riley the dog from Call of Duty: Ghosts, who returns with a special finishing move.